Underground
by Nix-the-Neko
Summary: Beat is exploring Traverse Town and he stumbles upon something that he's sure nobody has seen before. It's not something that Beat can just keep to himself, right? So, of course, he has to tell someone. Joshua happens to be the lucky kid.


It was a peaceful day in Traverse Town. Joshua was minding his own business, lazing around on top of the Gizmo Shop. It had been a while since the beginning of the Reaper's Game here in Traverse Town. The week had already passed, and now Joshua and company were simply bidding their time until it was safe to return to Shibuya.

"Hey, Joshua! I wanna show you somethin'!" Beat shouted as he hefted himself onto the building. He was grinning ear to ear and was dripping wet.

Joshua looked over at Beat. "What would that be?" After a moment of observation, Joshua added, "and why are you sopping wet? Did you fall into the fountain again?"

"A' course not! I'll tell you later, jus' come on!" Beat gestured for Joshua to follow and hopped off the building. He landed on the ground with a thump and looked back to see if Joshua was following.

Sighing, Joshua got up and jumped down, gracefully landing beside Beat.

"Lead the way, I suppose," Joshua said. He doubted that there was anything new that Beat could show him, but he supposed it never hurt to humor him.

"Follow me," Beat ordered, and started off toward the hotel.

"Yes, sir," Joshua giggled and followed after. "But, Beat… I've already seen the hotel. We sleep there."

"Have you ever been _behind_ the hotel?" Beat grinned widely.

Joshua giggled quietly to himself. He couldn't help it. Beat looked too excited about whatever it was that he had found. However, he couldn't help but burst Beat's bubble.

"Yes, Beat. I actually have. Is that your huge discovery? My, my, we'll make a Tabe Mitsuro out of you, yet," Joshua said and smirked at the other.

"Ah man, you don't know nothin', yet," Beat chuckled and stopped to ruffle Joshua's hair, causing Joshua to make a sound of protest. "And there's no way I could be Tabe… whoever. I'm Beat, yo. Nothin' else to it."

A little miffed at having his hair abused in such a fashion, Joshua huffed and crossed his arms. "What is this _amazing discovery_ that you have uncovered?"

"You'll see, you'll see," Beat said as he opened the door of the hotel and walked in. Joshua followed Beat as he cut through one of the spare rooms and stepped out onto the balcony. The familiar alleyway stretched below them, dotted with a few drainage pipes filled with water.

So that was where Beat had gotten so wet.

"So, you went swimming in the alleyway?" Joshua wrinkled his nose in disgust. Didn't Beat know what kind of bacter—

"How's a sewer any better? Jus' shut up and follow me," Beat hopped down and started walking left, toward one of the drainage pipes that had a few bars missing, allowing one to enter.

"You actually stuck your head in there?!" Joshua said in alarm, backing away from the ledge. If Beat thought that he would actually go in there, he had another thing coming.

"Come on, yo! There's somethin' really cool in there!" Beat called up to him, gesturing for Joshua to follow again.

"No!" Joshua denied.

"You gonna miss the cool thing, man!"

"I am not touching that water."

At that, Beat took a running leap and jumped up, grabbing onto the ledge. He hoisted himself back up onto the balcony and gave Joshua a wide grin.

Joshua, upon realizing he was about to be kidnapped, turned tail and bolted in an attempt to escape this fate. Beat just gave a short laugh and charged after him.

Unfortunately, even though Joshua had the head start, he didn't get very far. Beat grabbed him and threw him over his shoulder like he was a sack of potatoes.

"Beat… think about what you're doing…" Joshua said almost frantically, still managing to keep his cool.

"I did. I thought that I wanted t' show you what's in there," Beat replied and carried Joshua back over to the waterway.

"This is very demeaning, Beat…" Joshua looked down at the ground and glared at it. How dare his feet not be upon it at that very moment.

"Meh," Beat shrugged and hopped into the drainage pipe. He walked over and put Joshua down in front of the broken gate and nudged him towards it. "Go on. I'll be right behind ya."

Joshua looked at the ominous hole in trepidation, feeling a calm breeze blow out from its depths. Wait… a breeze…?

He leaned in closer and discovered that there was, in fact, a breeze coming from the hole.

Beat grinned as Joshua leaned in even further. He laughed when Joshua took another step forward and fell into the water with a huge splash.

Joshua let out a gasp as he hit the cold water and splashed around, nails scraping against the rocks that surrounded him. Swimming had never something he was good at.

Actually, he'd never learned how to swim in general. He'd never found a need to. There were no lakes or large bodies of water in the Shibuya district. Sure, there was the pool at the Shibuya-ku Sports Center, but since Joshua had never been one for athletic activates, he'd never bothered to use it.

While flailing around, Joshua failed to notice a large splash behind him. He struggled even harder when two strong arms wrapped around his waist suddenly. Was he about to be dragged under by some kind of squid-like Nightmare?!

"Hold still, I've got you, yo," Beat muttered, holding him.

Joshua paused at that, taking a deep, calming breath and looking behind him. Beat started kicking his feet and propelling them deeper into the waterway, holding Joshua against him to keep him from sinking back into the water.

"Why didn't you tell me you couldn't swim…?" Beat asked, looking apologetic. "Sorry, man."

"Why didn't you tell me that I'd have to swim?" Joshua snapped back.

"I…I thought you could, yo."

"Well, you thought wrong."

Beat just sighed and looked away guiltily. "I already said I was sorry."

Joshua sighed as well and leaned back against Beat. "So, what is this big discovery you've made?"

"Right ahead," Beat said and Joshua turned to look. He saw an incline out of the water and up onto a bed of rocks, which were oddly smooth and the same color as the walls.

Raising an eyebrow as Beat set him down on the dry land; Joshua turned to him and said, "What exactly am I supposed to be looking at?"

"Over there." Beat pointed at an adjacent tunnel, which was short enough that Joshua could see the end of it from where he was standing. The end of the tunnel had a large, blue crescent moon painted onto it.

"Delightful… a mural," Joshua said dryly, crossing his arms and shivering. He scowled at the motion and then redirected his scowl towards Beat, who looked completely baffled.

"Wha… but it was a sun last time I was here!" Beat took a step back and spun to look at Joshua. "You gotta believe me!"

"What I _believe_ is that I'm about to die of hypothermia," Joshua muttered and continued shivering.

A look of concern flashed across Beat's eyes, before a look of triumph suddenly overcame his expression. "Ha! You can't die a' that! You're already dead."

"Bravo, do you want a cookie for that?" Joshua snapped.

"Sure," Beat replied.

"Too bad. I lost all my cookies nearly drowning in the bacteria-infested waters," Joshua said and intensified his scowl. He wanted to beam the concept that he was _not_ pleased directly into Beat's brain. Although, Joshua was starting to doubt that he even had one.

At that, Beat was silent. He seemed to be mulling something over in his head. Joshua simply stood there and tapped his foot impatiently. He was technically trapped on this platform until Beat decided to take him back.

Which would hopefully be soon.

"That sucks, man," Beat finally said and started walking over toward the moon mural. "Come and look at this."

"Why did you drag me here instead of Neku? I'm sure that he would appreciate this more than I would," Joshua grumbled, not budging from the spot.

Beat paused when Joshua said that and turned to look at him. "Phones? He told me to go show it t' you first."

"Why not Rhyme? Or even Shiki?" Joshua asked.

"I told you. Phones told me to bring you first. 'Go show Joshua or something,' is what he said," Beat explained.

Joshua sighed. "Couldn't you have looked at the 'or something' part of it?"

"Nope."

"Why not?"

Beat just shrugged, looking back at the mural. He knocked on it experimentally a few times, and then splashed some water at it. When nothing happened, he pushed on the wall.

"…What on are you doing?" Joshua asked after staring for a few seconds.

"Tryin' t' make it change back t' the sun," Beat answered.

"Are you sure… you weren't hallucinating the sun or something?" Joshua cocked his head to the side.

Beat looked back at him sharply. "What, you think I'm on drugs or somethin'? 'Course I know what I saw! It was big and yellow. It was a sun."

"Beat…" Joshua started, "I don't believe there are drugs on this world. I would have presumed it was from sleep deprivation."

"I ain't on no sleep deprivation!" Beat glared at him.

"I mean that you haven't gotten enough sleep, Beat," Joshua raised his hands in front of himself, attempting to placate Beat. "If I look at your mural, will you calm down?"

Beat didn't say anything to that, looking like he was thinking again. After a few seconds, Beat huffed and his shoulders sagged, looking defeated. "Yeah, sure…"

Joshua walked up to the mural and looked it over. The design was simple; a light blue crescent moon in the middle of the wall with a few stars floating above it. Upon a closer inspection, Joshua discovered that the moon and stars seemed to be… glowing.

Joshua had heard of phosphorescent paint, but that paint was always a greenish color. Never a gentle blue like what the moon and stars were composed of.

"…I was wrong… this is interesting." Joshua gave the mural an inquisitive look. He reached out and ran a hand over the painting.

Beat just smiled and looked at the mural too.

"How did you come upon this?" Joshua asked, looking up to glance in Beat's direction.

"Well…" Beat started, "I was wonderin' what was in here. So I just decided that I'd jump in and find out. Then, I found this. Thought it was pretty cool, yo."

"So without a second thought… you jumped into a waterway that could have had Nightmares… or bacteria… or Julius… Julius could have been in here," Joshua chided.

"I could take that thing down!" Beat retorted. "Julius ain't so tough. 'Sides, I deal with Dream Eaters all the time."

"Of course you could…" Joshua sighed. "What about the bacteria?"

"If any bacteria tried to get on me, I'd kick its ass," Beat declared.

Joshua didn't reply to that, still a little sore about being cold, instead turning back to the mural to examine it closer. The odd coloration could have easily been from special chemicals that were only available on this particular world… But, there was also the fact that Beat claimed it had been a sun at first.

Joshua doubted that Beat would mistake a sun for a moon, no matter how simpleminded he was at times.

Suddenly, a bright glow emitted from the mural and Joshua had to step back and cover his eyes. He heard Beat grunt.

"What the…?!" Beat shouted.

When the glow faded, Joshua hesitantly uncovered his eyes and saw that there was no longer a moon and stars on the wall. They had been replaced by a large sun. It was yellow with red tips and surrounded by white clouds.

"Well, well, Beat. It seems that you were not hallucinating after all," Joshua said. He reached out and put his hand against the wall again, only to find it warm to the touch. Immediately, Joshua had the biggest urge to just hug the mural and soak up its heat. However… Beat was standing right there and Joshua wasn't ready to tarnish his reputation to warm himself up.

So, he instead turned around and leaned against the wall. Problem solved.

"A' course I wasn't seein' things!" Beat objected, seemingly pleased that Joshua now saw he was telling the truth.

Joshua just closed his eyes, relaxing against the heat of the wall. "I know, I know."

"Anyway… I promised that I'd take Rhyme to the Flick Rush place soon, so I'll see you later or somethin'," Beat said and turned, hopping into the water and swimming away.

Joshua just stood there for a few more seconds in bliss before he realized something.

Beat had forgotten to take him with him.


End file.
